Dan Colman seems to have made it his profession to beat poker’s biggest, which has certainly found him a place among poker’s biggest. Erik Seidel, a player who has been in the limelight for years now and has taken important role in the formation of the international poker scene, has become the latest victim of his younger colleague.
Last night, Colman faced Seidel heads-up in a rather short but very strenuous heads-up battle to be crowned the 2017 Triton Super High Roller Series Manila HK$250,000 6-Max Event’s champion. The young poker pro received HK$3,641,600 for his victory, leaving the HK$2,326,000 payout designated for the runner-up finisher to Seidel.
Colman is one of the world’s most profitable live poker players. With live tournament winnings of more than $27.5 million, he ranks 4th in the all-time money list. Over the years, he has developed preference for high roller tournaments and has proved to be quite good in these. Colman’s extensive poker portfolio boasts one particularly significant accomplishment – a victory in the 2014 WSOP $1,000,000 buy-in The Big One for ONE DROP. The player faced Daniel Negreanu heads-up to ultimately win one of the world’s most expensive events and scoop a hefty payout of $15,306,668.
Solaire Resort & Casino in the Philippine capital Manila is kindly playing host to the 2017 Triton Super High Roller Series. The HK$250,000 tournament on its schedule took two days of play for a winner to be determined. The event saw 43 entries generate a prize pool of HK$10,113,600.
Day 2 of the event kicked off with 24 players returning from the previous night. Russia’s Timofey Kuznetsov was the chip leader at the time. The survivors had the difficult task to set the final table and eventually determine the big champion. The final table and the money bubble were reached with the elimination of Richard Young in 8th place.
Germany’s Rainer Kempe led the final seven into the tournament’s closing stage with 700,000. Here it is interesting to note that Italian poker pro Mustapha Kanit entered the final table with just four big blinds. Unfortunately, the player was not able to improve very much and was eventually eliminated in 6th place for HK$556,000.
It can be said that Kempe was the player to rule the final table for the greater part, until Colman doubled through him during three-handed play. Things started getting worse and worse for the German poker pro from that point on. Eventually, he busted in 3rd place after failing to hold up against Colman in a heads-up confrontation. Kempe collected not a bad payout of HK$1,466,000 for his efforts.
The heads-up match between Colman and Seidel began with the former holding the chip lead. As mentioned above, the final two-handed duel was a relatively short one, but packed with action. Despite the 2:1 deficit, Seidel gained momentum to capture the lead at some point. However, Colman won a key hand and finished off his opponent on the very next to win the whole tournament.
On the final hand in play, the two players found themselves all in pre-flop. Colman tabled [As][Js] against Seidel’s [Ad][6s]. The [Qh][Jh][Jc][Ac][2d] appeared on the board securing Colman with a full house and the title.
Daniel Colman – HK$3,641,600
Erik Seidel – HK$2,326,000
Rainer Kempe – HK$1,466,000
Sergio Aido – HK$1,011,000
Timofey Kuznetsov – HK$708,000
Mustapha Kanit – HK$556,000
Mikita Badziakouski – HK$405,000
